Phyllis D. Airhart

phyllis photo

Associate Professor of the History of Christianity

B.A., University of Manitoba, 1977
M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1981, 1985

Contact
Office: Room 113
Tel.: (416) 585-4536
Fax: (416) 585-4516
Email: p.airhart@utoronto.ca

 

Phyllis D. Airhart is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Emmanuel College and cross-appointed to the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Her interests include North American Christianity, religion and public life, and the history of spirituality. In 1991 she received Victoria University’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2002 was the recipient of the United Church of Canada’s Davidson Trust Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship in theological education. Some of her leisure time is spent singing with the Toronto Classical Singers. She is married to Matthew Airhart and you may catch them walking around Yorkville or enjoying string quartets, orchestral music and opera.

Selected Publications

Phyllis is the author of Serving the Present Age: Revivalism, Progressivism, and the Methodist Tradition in Canada and A Church with the Soul of a Nation: Making and Remaking the United Church of Canada (forthcoming McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013). She is co-editor of Faith Traditions and the Family (with Margaret Lamberts Bendroth), a special issue of Toronto Journal of Theology titled Christianizing the Social Order: A Founding Vision of The United Church of Canada (with Roger C. Hutchinson); and Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World: Essays in Honour of Roger C. Hutchinson (with Marilyn Legge and Gary Redcliffe).

Her articles related to the United Church project include “‘As Canadian as Possible under the Circumstances’: Reflections on the Study of North American Protestantism” in New Directions in American Religious History (ed. Harry Stout and D.G. Hart); “Christianizing the Social Order and Founding Myths—Double Vision?” in Toronto Journal of Theology 12/2 (1996); “A ‘Review’ of the United Church’s 75 Years,” Touchstone: Heritage and Theology in a New Age 18 (2000): 19-31; “The United Church of Canada,” in Encyclopedia of Protestantism (vol. 4); “Women in the United Church of Canada,” in Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America (vol. 1); and “Who Are We for God’s Sake?” Touchstone: Theology Shaping Witness 28/2 (May 2010): 10-27.

Teaching

2012-13
EMH 1010HF History of Christianity I
EMH 5801HF Christianity and Crisis in North America
EMH 2010HS History of Christianity II
EMH 3570HS Issues in United Church History

Other courses regularly offered:
EMH 3757 Christian Spirituality: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
TXH 3806 Calvin, Wesley, and Canada (with Stuart Macdonald)
EMH 3371/6337 Varieties of North American Christianity
EMH 5801 Religion and Public Life in Canada

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